By KYLE COHLMIA

Textiles often provide a sense of comfort: a handmade blanket, the curtains in our bedroom, tablecloths on our kitchen tables, all fiber-based objects that remind us of, and are quite literally made from, the feelings of home. Additionally, memories evoke nostalgia. Memories of childhood hangouts and youthful adventures are wrought with stories that reminisce on an adolescent past. 

Alexis E. Mabry’s solo exhibit “Static Age,” currently on view at the Third Room Project, combines the art of textiles and memory-based illustrations to create an atmosphere satiated in nostalgia. Her large-scale, hand-painted textile installations and soft sculptures fill the room with a sense of humor, innocence, and juvenility that is evocative of memorabilia from the past. 

Walking into Third Room Project, the piece that immediately stands out is Side Yard Crew a humorous scene of five teenagers sitting around a pot filled with cigarette butts. One of the teens smokes from a pipe while another ignites a lighter with his farts; a third, distinguished by a Handsome Boy Modeling School shirt, slouches over, a cigarette in hand as the pink sun blazes down on the group creating an orange sunset glow to the background of a wooden picket fence. 

Another piece, “Happy Days,” illustrates three teenage girls in JNCO jeans, one with a Marlyn Mansion shirt, another adorning Korn, playing with a black cat, a Huffy bike strewn on the ground beside them. Notable in this artwork (and the others) is the frayed, unhemmed edges of the textile, an unfinished look that Mabry attests to her "do it yourself” approach. By revealing the edges to these pieces, we see the hand of the artist adding another layer of handcrafted nostalgia to the exhibit.

Mabry illustrates her textiles through stylistic lines that create cartoon-like characters with a sense of movement that draws the viewer in to notice the more detailed imagery throughout the scenes. Sentimental objects, that Mabry labels through the use of branding, such as a Metallica emblem, CRX Honda sign and Coca-Cola cans are scattered in designs throughout the textiles; and while not overt, the familiarity of the names adheres to the feeling of nostalgia exemplified throughout the exhibit. Additionally, soft sculptures of branded products such as Doritos, Camel cigarettes and Fanta cans are placed on bricks throughout the gallery space, providing the same sense of nostalgia that comes off the wall, integrating the viewer with the work in a 3D manner. 

Mabry, originally from Dallas, TX currently resides in Austin, TX. She utilizes her background in craft to explore “social stereotypes in identity through observation, anecdote, and personal introspection.” The images illustrated in her textiles are memories from her childhood, and as a female BMX rider, Mabry “explores feminine roles in male-dominated activities.” Nostalgia is prevalent in “Static Age,” as Mabry calls upon memory to exemplify an age when both rebellion and innocence were patchworks of identity. 

Third Room Project is a space dedicated to showing experimental and emerging projects by young artists both in the Portland art scene and nationwide. “Static Age” is available for viewing at Third Room Project through March 20th. 

Kyle Cohlmia was born in Stillwater, OK. She received a B.A. in Art History and Italian with a minor in English from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in Instruction and Curriculum at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Kyle has worked at various art museums and galleries including the Denver Art Museum, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and most recently, as Curator of Exhibitions for the Melton Gallery at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is a previous fellow of Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship and has written for various art publications including Art Focus, Art 365, and Art Discourse. Kyle is currently living in Portland, OR, working toward her second M.A. in Critical Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Kyle Cohlmia was born in Stillwater, OK. She received a B.A. in Art History and Italian with a minor in English from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in Instruction and Curriculum at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Kyle has worked at various art museums and galleries including the Denver Art Museum, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and most recently, as Curator of Exhibitions for the Melton Gallery at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is a previous fellow of Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship and has written for various art publications including Art Focus, Art 365, and Art Discourse. Kyle is currently living in Portland, OR, working toward her second M.A. in Critical Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Pronouns: she/her